Cushion-tire.



C. L. VAN NESS &-F. A. KRUSEMARK I CUSHION TIRE.

APPLICATION FILE D SEP T. 0| 1917.

1,277,789. Patented Sept. 3 1918.

mtq $76M Ma AVVENIOR5 ATTORZVEYS,.

' To aZZ whom it may concern:

; erases an enna cart CLAIR L. VAN NESS, 0F AKRON, OHIO, AND FREDERICK AKRUSEMABK, OF MANOKE, VIRGINIA, ASSIGNOBS TO K F & C TIRE & RUBBER.CORPOEA'IIQN, 9F noenom, VIRGINIA, A CORPORATION OF VIRGINIA.

cosmos-Tran.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. a, ess.

Application filed September 10, 1917. Serial 310. 190,539. 4

Be it known that we, CLAIR'L; VAN Nnss and Fniani-znicinA. KRUSEMARK,citizens of the llnited States of America, and'residents of Akron,county of Summit, and State of Ohio, and Roanoke, county of Roanoke, andState of Virginia, respectively, have invent ed certain new and usefulImprovements in on line 3 .3.

Cushion-Tircs, of which the following is a full and clear specification.

This invention has relation to cushion or airless tires, and its objectis to increase the resiliency and durability of the tire, andparticularly to avoid the disastrous efiects of heavy side or skiddinstralns, as more fully hereinafter set fort i.

In the drawing .Figure 1 is partly a sideelevation and partly acircumferential section of a portion of a the constructed in accordancewith our invention Fig. 2 is air-enlarged transverse section takenthrough the base portion of a tire, along line 4-4, Fig. 1 and I Fig. 3is a transverse section of F 1g. 1

In the *drawing, a designates the usual metal rim provided with theusual tiregripping flanges and roughened interior face. The tire isconstructed of a solid mass of rubber whose outer portion is, as usual,soft and resilient While the base portion Z1,

namely, the part which is anchored in the rim, is hardened. Weillustrate our invenside and embedded shown in 3. The wall e also archesinwardly longitudinally of the slot, as in the aforesaid Funkhouser etal. application. ()ur slot arrangement difi'ers also in that the innerwall 7' of each of the slots 0 and d is curved inwardly toward the rim,to correspond substantially with the inward curvature of the outer wallof each'slot,- so that when the tire is under excessive load or receivesa blow-of excessive severity and is thereby collapsed to the extent ofclosing the slots, said outer and inner Walls of the slots will fit orabut each other and thus prevent disruption of the tire by a crushingaction.

Embedded in the tire and extending continuously its entire length is aplurality of (preferably six) bands g of textileor fibrous material,each band consisting pi'eferably of a series of cords lying side by inthe rubber mass. Each of these bands is arranged in a'spiral.

' 0s serpentine manner in the tire, that ,is,

tion as applied toa tire constructed in accordance with the Funkhouser,Krusemark and Carpenter application Serial No. 187 ,504, filed August21, 1917, but it will be under-,

stood that our invention is not'restricted in its' application to thattype of tire. As in the Funkhouser et. a1. tire, we provide an outerseries of slots 0 and an inner series of slots d, these slots beingstaggered with reference to each other and extendingcircumferentially'of the tire.- Our present slot arrangement difi'ersfrom the Funkhouser et al. arrangement of slots in that the outer wall eof each of the-slots c is convexed outwardly, that is, toward the breadto form an arch structure, to thereby increase the strength andresiliency of the tread portion of the tire. The curvature of this archextends from one side of the tire to. the other, that is, transverselyof the tire, as

each band curves or dips down on one 'side of the tire to a point nearthe rim, following substantially the exterior surface of the tire, andthen curves spirally across and through the tread portion of the tireand down upon the otherside of the tire, where it is again anchored at apoint near the rim, so that, at points halong the tread portion of thetire, these bands cross each other and lie preferably in contact witheachother at this crossing point. it points where the bands lie in thehardened base portion'b of the tire, they are anchored in a metallic eyeor loop is connected by a'wire rod j which is bent inwardly toward therim, this rod j of course, embedded in the hardened part b of the tire.To anchor the bar 7' audits anchoring loops i, we provide a pair ofcircumferentially-extending-rods L en'ibedded in the hardened part b ofthe tire, just inside the inner slots ll, these rods engaging theshouldered parts 1 of the rod The loops '5 are elongated transversely ofthe tire, so that the band 5 in passing through the loops will liefiatwise of the the Each pair of opposite eyes being,

It will be observed that with this spiral or serpentine cord-band, aside pressure or strain at any point in the tire will immediately bringinto tension at least one of the bands, and that the tension of the bandwill be transmitted and distributed along the band circun'iferentiallyof the tire to' a distance depending upon the severity of the strain. Inthis way it will be observed that we provide effectively against tearingor disrupting the tire by heavy side or skidding thrusts. An importantfeature lies in embedding or ai'ichoring the bands at intervals alongthe tire in the hardened base portion thereof, so that the greater partof the strain caused by side thrusts of the tire will be transmitteddirectly to the rim of the tire, By flattening the bands out parallelwith the rim at the anchoring points i, it will be seen that uniformtension is n'iaintained on the cords tomposing the bands. It will beseen also thutit is important that the bands will lie close to the sidesof the tire, that sidewise distortion of the tire at any point willimmediately bring the bands into action and thus tend to restore thetire to normal shape. This special arrangement of bands is :ulvantegeousfor the further reason that it tends to maintain the tire in its moldedshape for a long; period of time. con'iparatively.

Our structure results in a very strong design wl'eh will quickly repelthe depression :is the tire leaves the traction position.

it also reirfiorees that portion of the tire which ouli ubaorb all theshook as near the surface of t tread as possible, which does wire toelite resiliency than any other mes. I since it well known that by methe eli'l t of the depression nearer oil? the tire, it produces a greatin to: l friction, incr isiug the heat and dis ii'ite iationu Thecavities near the rim do not receive so an action the outer cavities andtherefore it is not necessary to arch. these across the see. n. Thebands pass across eaeh other direetly over each of the outer cavitiesand tluis form, togetherwith the other reiziforring straiu-distributingfabrics euibeih rd in the 1 pad-like bodies over the openings the watersurfaces of the bands brin perfectly curved to a true circle. The bandsare plt lilllhfg' composed of cord fabrie or similar fiber eon ruction,placing the tension strain around the top of these cavities. Thereinforcing pads ale t us tension members between the cuvit its andacross the span. The fimetion iis construction 5o lighten the u'ei 1ctire and yet not o -mit can t too great a r thus .minithe base strainpres spirally increase the tendency to re-act un der the compressionstrain, which will bring the tire to its normal position when the isreleasedpro(lucing resiliency. These cords are molded into the tire nearthe surface of the side walls as close to the Considering the sidethrust delivered to the. tread as shown in Fig: 3, the point ad acentthe bead or flange of the rim will act as a fulcrum around which theentire section tends to swing. This will give an enormous strain uponthe side where the shocl is received and will produce a tension stresson the cords thereiin "This strain does not come directlt to the rim.but absorbed through the inner side of the tire diagonally away from thepoint of contact to the base of the tire. This construction graduallyabsorbs the entire shock which is very slir'l at the base of the tire,from which point it is pulling. These cords pass over the section of thethe hooking at the base and returning from the same diagonally over tothe opposite side. Inerossing over the cavities and the side walls, thebands reinforce or tabricete the, entire construction and thus bind orincase the entire striu'ture and thus increase the resiliency rubber.jipplying a shock to the tread will depress it whereupon the rubber isforced out at the side and then these strong cables quickly cause theside walls to rebound in and force the tread out again a condition whichno airless tire that we are familiar with is able to produce. The cordsare stretched tightly around the tire and are in the hard rubber base,this anchoringdeand buoym'icy of the vice eing retained by two annularrings,

which are molded in the hard rubber portion of the base. It will beobserved "the the wire hooks are very simple and that the rings preventthe cords from rising from their seatv under strain. location of thecords insure their overcoming the side thrust as they are anchored farapart, and the height is not too great to retain all their power,enabling a tire of maximum height to be used and still so reinforcedthat the resiliency obtained is the maximum for the action up d on therub- 1o prevent the tearing apart of any sew or part. (Bur eorddiitethold the as laeed in their pro position, reliev any tendencytopernumently set that The design and" newnee win naturally occur in therubber. This :keeps the tire fresh and lively and in perfeet conditionat alltimes, and will'thus produce the maximum efiiciency that can beobtained on'any pleasure vehicle besides being specially advantageous-on motor trucks.

The nature and scope of' the invention having been thus indicated andits preferred embodiment having beenv specifically described, what isclaimed as new 1s:

1. A cushion tire of elastic material pro-i vided'with a,circumferential series of openings extending from side to side andhaying embedded in it a series of spirally-arranged fibrous bandscrossing each other in the tread portion of the tire directly over eachof said openings.

2. A cushion tire of elastic material provided with a circumferentialseries of openings extending from side to side and having embedded in ita series of spirally-arranged Y fibrous bands crossing each other in thetread portion of the tire directly over each,

of said openings, said bands crossing each other also at thesides of thetire at points between the openings.

3. A tire of elastic material having embedded in it a series of flatfibrous bands spirally-arranged and extending from the tread portiondown the sides of the tire to v points near the rim portion of thejcirewhere the bands are twisted to lie flatwise with respect to the rim;

4. A tire of elastic material having embedded in it a series of -flatfibrous bands spirally-arranged and extending from the tread portiondown the sides of the tire to points near the rim portion of the tirewhere the bands are twisted to lie fiatwis'e with respect to the rim, ametallic anchoring loop engaging each twisted portion of the band,

these loops being connected together across the tire in pairs.

5. A tire of elastic material having embedded in it a series of flatfibrousbands spirally-arranged and extending from the tread portion downthe sidesof the tire to points near the rim portion of the tire wherethe bands are twisted to lie flatwise with respect to the ri1n, ametallic anchoring loop engaging each twisted portion of the hand, theseloops being connected togetherv site wall of each slot being similarlydished."

7, A resilient tire provided with a series of spaced slots extendingcircumferentially of the tire and running through from side to side ofthe tire, the outer wall of each opening being dished inwardly withrefer ence to circumferential lines, and the opposite wall of each slotbeing snnila'rly dished, the outer Wall of each opening being alsotransversely arched outwardly toward the tread and the inner; wall beingsimilarly arched.

In testimony whereof we hereunto affix our signatures this'5 day ofSeptember, 1917.

.CLAIR L. VAN NESS.

FREDERICK A. KRUSEMARK.

